Usually I open my travel blogs with “Day 0”, or the day we spent getting to the airport and then on to Europe. But we had late graduation parties on Sunday, and we were leaving out of Newark Airport (a seven-hour drive), so we broke Day 0 into two days. Day minus-1?

On Sunday, we drove to Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. I had picked it because it had an inexpensive hotel and was about half-way to Newark, but I was actually disappointed we didn’t have more time there. The town is very cute and has a very pretty, well-lit river walk that we drove by.

Monday was uneventful, except we were both surprised by a thriving old-school mall. We got off near Newark to find a restroom and figured there would be one in the mall right off the exit. We are used to malls closing in our area (at least some of them), so it was a surprise to find a huge mall where every storefront was full. It was clean and modern-looking, and was big enough that it took about ten minutes to find a bathroom. Malls aren’t dead. How very 1990.

We got to the actual airport about three and a half hours before the flight left, but breezed through check-in and security so quickly that we were still at the gate three hours early. Even when I plan things correctly, we still sit at the gate for hours. We took advantage of the time to have a meal at a restaurant.

The flight was largely uneventful (other than my having a very unhappy and active child in front of me), and I actually managed to get some sleep on the plane, which is very rare for me. We landed in Copenhagen Tuesday morning (today), where we had a five-hour layover. We again used the time to get some food, and read our books; I suspect I’ll actually finish my seven-hundred-page Harry Potter book before I get home.

The flight to Vilnius was also uneventful, and we were startled at how quickly we just walked out of the small airport, which looks like a train station. We were in luck – a bus going to “City Centre” was right there, so we jumped on, since our hotel was in the Old Town. It took me about thirty minutes to figure out that City Centre and Old Town were not the same in Vilnius, unlike in some European cities. That led to a one-hour trip to correct the mistake, but we finally made it to our hotel, just inside the Old Town. It is attached to a church, and so I think it is an old convent. It’s basic, but comfortable, and the location is just what we wanted. Like the beds. Even though it was now 6:00 pm local time, we did our usual jetlag-busting nap of a couple of hours.

Even though that timing was less than ideal, Europeans eat later than Americans, and so we headed out around 8:30, feeling much better for having slept and showered. Vilnius is far enough north that it stays light until well after 10:00, so we had a good view of the sun setting as we sat outside for supper. It was a short touring day, but we had a good meal in a pretty place, and we are here safely, so that is a win for the start of our Lithuania tour.